To most people in the U.S. 1492 means only one thing: the discovery
of America. Actually, it was a momentous year for Spain and, no
doubt, the departure of Columbus with three small ships on August
third seemed to be one of the less important events. The year started
with a great triumph; on January second Ferdinand and Isabella
captured the last Moorish stronghold in the country The Moslems had
invaded Spain in 711 and had soon conquered almost all of the peninsula,
so their final defeat after all those centuries seemed very important to
the Spanish.1 The Jews of Spain had their sights on an even
greater triumph: the coming of their Messiah. Now why would they
choose that time for His coming?

The reason that the Jews expected their Messiah2 to appear at any
moment that year was that they were in serious trouble again.
Ferdinand and Isabella, at least partly as a thank offering to God
for
His help in the reconquest, signed an edict in March ordering all Jews
to accept Christian baptism or leave the country in four months. Most
of them chose to leave and were cruelly tormented and robbed by their
fanatical neighbors. In their despair they prayed that their Messiah
would come to deliver them.

The survivors from this Exodus found refuge in Moslem lands,
many of them settling in the Near East, then the Turkish Empire.
Their conviction that their Messiah would quickly appear to deliver
them from their troubles continued for a generation and more, but in
the meantime they found ways to improve their own lot. Indeed, these
deported Spanish Jews, the Sephardim as they were called, became an
aristocracy of sorts among their own people, a group distinguished
for
their accomplishments. As strange as it may seem. these Jews, scattered
as they were across the earth, were wont to keep their Spanish
dialect, although they had no reason to love the people who had sent
them into exile. It is no doubt worth noting that the Jews who came
to
our Thirteen Colonies long ago were mostly Sephardic. We should
remember too that Spain lost a valuable asset when she drove out
these capable people.

The reaction of the Jews to their crisis in 1492 was rather typical
of
their behavior under stress and not greatly different from what Christians
have often done in similar circumstances. For instance, The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, if we may borrow Gibbon's
name for what happened, was an exceedingly painful experience for
many people. Indeed, it is believed that the population of the Empire
may have declined by about half during those years of turmoil. It is
hard for us Americans to imagine a catastrophe of such magnitude.
Needless to say, a lot of Romans were deeply concerned about the crisis
and noted with unbelief the indifference of many Christians. As
Gibbon tells us, the Christians didn't care what happened to Rome,
because they believed that their Lord would return as the old and
feeble Roman Empire5 was tottering to its fall. while it should be
remembered that he had an anti-Christian bias, it may be well be true,
as Gibbon insisted, that the political sins of omission of the saints
contributed to the collapse of civilization. Are we doing the same
today?

It should be obvious that over the ages many Christians and Jews
have shared the belief that when their problems overwhelmed them
their Messiah would appear to rescue them. Beyond this point our
ideas differ, we believing that their Messiah did come but too many
of
them failed to recognize Him. It will be noted also that both believed
they were powerless to remedy the situation themselves. A striking
exception to this tendency was Saint Augustine;4 he saw much to
encourage him when Rome was captured and sacked by the Goths in
410 A.D. When the pagans insisted that Rome had fallen because it
had forsaken the gods which had made her great, he answered that the
Lord had saved them from an awful fate, something their heathen
deities never could have done. He reminded them that when Troy, for
instance, was captured by the Greeks, it was destroyed utterly and
everyone was killed who could not escape. This was what always
happened in war, but the barbarians had shown unbelievable restraint
in pillaging Rome. It was a miracle. War was still war, but the Gospel
of Christ had even tamed the barbarians. This, Saint Augustine
believed, was just a foretaste of the great changes for the better
which
he saw down in the future. He was convinced that the Church should
replace the heathen and dying Roman Empire with a Christian civilization.
One can allow that the good Saint was too optimistic and still
insist that it should have happened.

Let us move a little closer to our own time and see what can be
done, the Lord being our helper. In 1738 Bishop Berkeley wrote5 that
morality and religion in Britain had collapsed "to a degree that has
never been known in any Christian country. Our prospect is very
terrible and the symptoms grow worse from day to day." That very year
John Wesley had his "heart strangely warmed" at Aldersgate and he
went out into the fields to call England to repentance. Slowly the
tide
began to turn. In addition to the great revival social reforms, once
deemed impossible, now became very feasible. As one example, England
freed her slaves in 1772 and went on to eradicate that ancient
evil from the earth. Christian statesmen, led by William Wilberforce
and loyally supported by John Wesley and multitudes of concerned
Christians, accomplished much.6 Even secular historians7 concede that
without the great revival England would no doubt have had the equivalent
of the French Revolution. Like the writer of the Book of Hebrews,
"the time would fail me to tell" of their many accomplishments" (Heb.
11:32). This was what Saint Augustine had in mind when he wrote The
City of God; we should build a Christian civilization.

No doubt the Jews of Spain were helpless in 1492 and could only
flee, if even that was possible. But too often we Christians have run
away from our problems, when with the Lord's help we could have done
something about them if we had had the courage to try. Then it might
be said of us as it was of Paul and Silas: "These that have turned
the
world upside down are come hither also." (Acts 17:6).